But the festive family atmosphere that surrounded the first three Bowden Bowls will likely be gone when Bobby Bowden's Florida State team hosts Tommy's Clemson Tigers on Thursday night.

"I just don't feel the love this year," Clemson's Bowden said.

Bowden hasn't talked to his father this week. Although the team arrives a day early for the nationally televised game, Bowden doesn't expect to see his father until the pre-game meeting. He might talk to his mom, Ann, after the game. Maybe.

"It's like I was telling the team, I wish it wasn't a father-son thing," Bowden said Tuesday.

That's been hard for anyone to escape since big time college football's first father-son series began at Clemson in 1999.

Back then, Tommy and Bobby acted at times like they were on a family vacation. The two rode to nearby Travelers Rest -- a caravan of TV trucks following behind -- to watch Tommy's son Ryan play a high school football game.

The next season with Bobby as host, the family went out to dinner the night before Florida State's 54-7 victory.

No such family bonding is apparent this weekend.

Maybe it's because of Florida State's 26-20 overtime loss to Louisville last Thursday night that dropped Bobby's team from fourth to 11th in the rankings.

But mostly, says the son, it's because the Tigers (3-1, 1-0 ACC) have yet to prove they can come close to the Seminoles (4-1, 3-0) on the field.

"The big interest nationally is Florida State and how they're going to respond after losing to an unranked team," Tommy Bowden said. "I think that's why most of the nation is going to tune in Thursday night, not to see us."

Anyone who does could see a different group of Tigers than during Bowden's first three seasons. While they're tops in defense, their typically potent offense is averaging 338 yards a game, 120 fewer than Florida State's.

"I told you I was going to do something different on offense," Bowden joked.

Tommy has tried to keep the family emotions out of the locker room this week. It hasn't always worked.

"Coach Bowden's really, really, really excited about this game," Clemson linebacker John Leake said. "We feel and he feels this is our best chance" to beat the Seminoles.

Clemson wins have been few and far between in the series. The Tigers have lost 10 straight to the Seminoles. Things are even bleaker at Doak Campbell Stadium where Florida State has won its past five games with Clemson by an average score of 46-2.

Things got out of hand in a hurry two years back. Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke helped the Seminoles roll up 771 yards on a Clemson team ranked, at the time, among the nation's best defenses.

Cornerback Brian Mance scrunches up his face and shakes his head at the memory. "It gets mentioned in practice every time somebody doesn't bat down a pass or misses an assignment," Mance said. "We say, 'We don't want to go down there and get embarrassed like before.'"

Neither does Tommy.

He has taken his beatings gamely and pledged to get better. It was a lesson learned from his father, who always felt it was an opponent's job to improve if they didn't like the lopsided losses.

Mance says coach Tommy Bowden was over-the-top excited that first matchup in 1999 and the players fed off it. They led top-ranked Florida State 14-3 before the Seminoles rallied for a 17-14 victory -- Bobby Bowden's 300th career victory. Receiver Jackie Robinson has seen his coach mellow out on the family rivalry through the years.

"All I know is if it was me personally and I was about to coach (against) my father, I would get a lot more pumped up about it," Robinson said. "But he does a good job keeping it inside."